# Orange County Ban



## Strick (Aug 21, 2008)

I don't recall seeing this posted but if it is already posted then delete this one.

Just got this from CRA. It's getting worse everyday and if I were a County employee here and wanted my job look what I have to sign. Everyone needs to jump on these yahoos and let him know you wont be spending any cash in their locale...



Orange County, Florida:
Mayor Crotty Bans Use of Tobacco Products 

Effective January 1, 2010, the use of tobacco products (including: cigars, pipes, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, snuff, snus, and hookahs) on all county owned and leased land was outlawed through an order signed by Orange County's Mayor Richard T. Crotty as he and a coalition of anti-tobacco supporters work to make the entire county tobacco-free.

This OUTDOOR ban comes on the heels of Florida's statewide existing indoor smoking ban which is already in affect.

Several major cities, including Orlando, reside in Orange County and the local economy heavily relies on tourism.

The ordinance now outlaws the use of any tobacco product in areas such as outdoors at the Orange County Convention Center, County parks, fishing docks, boat ramps, outdoor trails, county owned parking lots, streets and sidewalks.

Additionally, in order to maintain employment, County employees are required to sign an affidavit which states that any employee who enjoys more than four cigars per year they will be fined $650 each year they violate the tobacco policy. 

On March 19, 2010, Mayor Crotty's anti-tobacco campaign received a boost when he allocated $6.6 million in federal stimulus funds (supposed to be used to create jobs) to the Orange County Health Department to prevent tobacco usage.


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## mrsmitty (Jan 22, 2009)

I just got it from Corona Cigar. And was getting ready to post it myself. This makes me sick, so you can still smoke on your private property outside right?

"Additionally, in order to maintain employment, County employees are required to sign an affidavit which states that any employee who enjoys more than four cigars per year they will be fined $650 each year they violate the tobacco policy"

This is TOO much!


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

This is so irritating that I am glad I am retired and don't have to put up with this nonsense. Bans are so commonplace anymore that it has become the expected rather than the unexpected. How to combat this abuse? We as citizens have the right to protest and I'm not seeing much of that when it comes to our rights except for listening to TV/RAdio talking heads who only do it to keep their ratings up and to keep their name in the papers. When you get a lot of people together to protest something so unfair as this it will put pressure on city government to listen but if we don't protest in numbers ( not emails, not forums, not group discussions) but rather in force where we can be seen. I can't even remember the last time I saw an organized effort to march on any city government to call for an end to these stupid bans. Apathy is a malignant growth in any community where rights are taken away from the smallest to the biggest and we are losing more rights in the last 10 years than when this country was first started.


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## dyieldin (Sep 27, 2009)

I am so feed up with government intervention in everything, I can only express my frustrations in one word...assholes.


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## Dan-Hur (Feb 26, 2010)

> Additionally, in order to maintain employment, County employees are required to sign an affidavit which states that any employee who enjoys more than four cigars per year they will be fined $650 each year they violate the tobacco policy.


Whenever something like this is put into effect, I have to wonder, how the hell do they monitor that? Is it just an empty, purely symbolic authoritarian threat or do they actually intend to enforce by monitoring your activities?


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## Plop007 (Jul 8, 2009)

If someone organized a march or a parade for cigar rights that would be awesome.

Lets all go buy plane tickets to Washington D.C. and have a cigar event in front of the white house? whos down?


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

Plop007 said:


> If someone organized a march or a parade for cigar rights that would be awesome.
> 
> Lets all go buy plane tickets to Washington D.C. and have a cigar event in front of the white house? whos down?


I'm in! I'll bring my whole humidor and create my own smokescreen! Is it ok to smoke on the Mall?


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## orca99usa (May 23, 2008)

> Additionally, in order to maintain employment, County employees are required to sign an affidavit which states that any employee who enjoys more than four cigars per year they will be fined $650 each year they violate the tobacco policy.


I wonder about the legality of this. I can't see how they can dictate the off-duty behavior of employees engaging in legal behavior.


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## phatmax (Mar 18, 2009)

orca99usa said:


> I wonder about the legality of this. I can't see how they can dictate the off-duty behavior of employees engaging in legal behavior.


All under the guise of "health". See, the .gov fascists/authoritarians figured out long ago that your "health" can be related to ANY and I mean ANY human activity you may choose to engage in, even if it is sitting and doing nothing.

Once they can be the providers of your insurance and medical care, they can control your entire life.

Just like living with Mom and Dad when they pay for everything, they get to tell you how to live your life. You may disagree, and you may even break the rules...but for that you will be PUNISHED.

ETA: This is why I am so against that abomination that got passed.... they don't have to write tobacco bans or anything else directly into the legislation.... bans and BEHAVIORAL CONTROL can be simply created by governing entities as "rules" , such as OSHA or the EPA creating a "rule" that you have to abide by to conduct business, but Congress does not have to touch it.


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## phatmax (Mar 18, 2009)

By the way, does this apply to:

Sidewalks maintained by the county

Streets

Right-of-ways

Parking Decks?


If it applies to streets/parking decks if you are walking on them....Should it not also apply to people smoking in their cars on the same streets as the SMOKE is still in coming out of the car into the air above the street?


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## pomorider (Nov 14, 2009)

Dan-Hur said:


> Whenever something like this is put into effect, I have to wonder, how the hell do they monitor that? Is it just an empty, purely symbolic authoritarian threat or do they actually intend to enforce by monitoring your activities?


They hire someone to patrol the social networking sites.

The last time I checked, America is a free country and was found by people who seek freedom from the Queen. Now that the government is about to do the same. May bepeople needs to threw a boxes of tobacco into the water to protest these new laws?


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## iMarc (Feb 24, 2010)

I was dumbfounded when I got this email.

A couple of weeks ago I was at a party with a guy who had just finished policy academy and he declined a cigar because he said the police force had a no tobacco policy.

I didn't know that it applied to all county employees. Wow.


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## iMarc (Feb 24, 2010)

One thing that makes me chuckle is that a lot of laws like this are put in place under the guise of preventing other "innocent" citizens from being poisoned with second hand smoke.

But then for some reason, things like chewing tobacco get added.


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## Pugsley (Jul 12, 2009)

pomorider said:


> May bepeople needs to threw a boxes of tobacco into the water to protest these new laws?


Tobacco, hell, it's too expensive. Throw a few politicians in the water, they're a dime a dozen.


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## kRaZe15 (Jan 25, 2010)

i guess they have nothing better to do than mess with us. they can spend the money on more pressing matters rather than something like this. give us a break and leave our hobby alone. things like this make me see the world in a whole different way.


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## apoplectic (Jun 3, 2010)

I'm glad I moved out of Orlando then.

I know I'm new to cigars, but I've been smoking twigs for a while, and this pisses me off. I can understand not being allowed to smoke indoors, but being forced not to smoke at all on Govt. property, and only being allowed to smoke up to four cigars a year if you're a government employee? This is insane. Not only are you limiting what government employees can do during THEIR off-time, this has an impact on local B&M's. I guess the tobacco taxes don't hurt the economy enough do they? And using stimulus money to do this? *facepalms*

Sorry for the mini rant on a dying thread, I just get pissed off at this sort of political boneheadedness, and having grown up in Orange county this hits kinda close to home.


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